chrisp65

Anyhow common sense has prevailed , the bill has passed and we can move on to other areas of reform and the students can back to doing whatever next weeks student fad is What a disgusting attitude Tony. why .. just cause I happen to think that students should pay their own way .. Yes I know people are going to trott out the line about the poor students and so on but no one has to sit down tomorrow and write a cheque for £9k to go to university , so in that regard it isn't penalising anyone yes students do benefit the country , but the students themselves also benefit and £7 a month in extra tax or whatever it is , really is a small price to pay in the long run ... unless you think every student goes to uni to leave and go and do voluntary work in the Sudan ? and if they do then they wont have to pay the bloody loan thingy back anyway .. So no it isn't a disgusting attitude , what is disgusting is the wanton vandalism and destruction that "some" of the protesters have caused imo but why should students pay their own way? surely the right to a free education is an over riding priviledge of growing up in Britain. If some kid wants to spend a few years doing media studies, analysing star wars or writing a thesis on coronation street why should they pay? Surely it's better that I pay via my taxes? perhaps, when I am benevolent dictator we can sort this by having a selective fee system. Working to be a doctor / nurse / engineer etc? Here have a subsidy. Hoping to study modern ceramics / dance / drama? Sorry love, you'll be paying.

Cash in an envelope? No, never, couldn't. Worked overseas briefly and it was clearly an unspoken but fairly regular occurence. I just couldn't bring myself to jump in and join in as it were. Taking Clients to watch the Ryder Cup for a few days? Taking Clients to sit in the nice seats at Villa? Gifting someone a contract on the understanding they gift us a job soon? Shall we say I've seen it happen!

"Oh can I pay by card" "oh here it is" "oops wrong way round" "Pin?" "I've got it here somewhere, that's it (reads PIN out loud whilst typing it in)" It is amazing that people are surprised that they need to pay once they get to a checkout. oh hang on, I think I've got the right change, no, yes, give me the ten back and I'll give you.......hmmmm, hang on, yes, no I've got a 2p if that helps? Actually can I have cash back?

it always amazes me, they select an item, take it to the till, the till jockey announces the price........ ....oh!.....right!......£5.99......erm.....right I'll just look for my money, in my purse, in my bag.

I'm guessing the quote on the Palin picture should be dated 1935. This would tie it in with the age of fascism and bring the quote within the life and times of the guy who supposedly said it.

spot on Labour 'yes person' unable to win gets in anyway Plaid's Daf Wigley is a nice guy from what I've seen of him. Supporter of his local footy club (Caernarfon) he made a point of looking after us when my local team went bust and we had to all chip in for boot money and a bus to get a stand in pub team to complete our fixtures, including a trip to Caernarfon. Even laid on food and drink for the Barry supporters that made the trip AND put the local boy's straight that made the classic gog error of presuming nobody in our party would be able to speak or understand Welsh.

love it 1) the joy of all that vicarious excitement from the nippers 2) construction sites close down and the phone stops ringing 3) 3 day champagne haze (my treat to myself, 6 bottles of varying quality already in stock) 4) Boxing day morning on the beach, regardless of weather 5) me cooking the mother of all rolling feasts all day long for the family

Some of them have learnt nothing, they still think it's more important to close ranks and stand by a convicted election cheat and liar as he's 'one of them'. It beggars belief they cannot see that they've almost all been caught with their hands in the till, they are almost universally capable of going back on election pledges, then one has been caught lying yet they are concerned the judiciary can over rule a fraudulently achieved election result! FFS! When will we have 'none of the above' on the voting slips?

I just don't see how it's going to work in real life. If the french surrender on the same week they are in charge of the aircraft carrier what do we do the next week? Ask for it back?

Varies, with three desks, one in Redditch, one in Cardiff and one in London. 3 overnights this week, 2 in London, 1 in deepest darkest Kent. Knackered, and it's Tuesday.

I'll have you know I re worded it several times to keep it neutral and not subliminally influencise the votery.

Probably been done a thousand times before. But what with the poor being told to leave nice areas of town and sell kidneys, are the royals still worth funding? Now I know the Civil List is coming to an end, but the compensation will be the ruling royal at any time will live rent and maintenance free - forever. I appreciate we can't let everyone live rent and maintenance free, but surely we can dig deep and pay tax to let the royals be the exception to the rule? This for someone who, however you wish to calculate whatever you want to include as theirs, is worth billions. Would the tourists really stop visiting London if the royals were not subsidised?

send them Harry Callahan

Could we spend the money building flat pack shelters here (er, thus employing us), that could only really be used as shelter 'there'. Thus taking the money out of the transaction. I know you wouldn't get as much value buying materials here and building stuff here, but at least at the end haiti / Pakistan / Sierra Leon / Nigeria etc actually gets a hospital / class room / row of houses as opposed to never quite seeing the £20k sent over to have one of those built. keeps people off the dole, gives people a purpose, gives a genuine visible item to the receiving country.

I don't have a great deal of knowledge on the Libs inner workings and internal power set up. But I did think that kennedy was forced out because he was constantly pissed to the point of being a regular no show at functions due to 'ill health'.

I hoid it through it through the grapevine - Creedence Clearwater Revival

I'd expect it to feature prominently in the next labour party political on a tv near you soon. Regardless of context or intent or anything else, a tory millionaire announces cuts and tory backbenchers cheered. I'd have expected a bit more control from the whips. Both sides are quite amateurish at present. On the subject of party politicals, I can't wait for the next Liberal one. I mean, where on earth do they go with it? Hey, vote for us again and we'll actually do what we promised last time! Hey, vote for us and we'll do what we **** well like! Hey, vote for us and we'll pop your concerns into the Clegg randomiser and see what pops out! Hey, vote for us.....hello?hello? is anyone still watching?

it's an undeniably difficult time and whoever was in power was going to have to cut budgets and then have their tactics affected by the external international markets. There is no right plan, there are simply plans that will be influenced by outside events we cannot forsee. If the USA goes down the tubes and France implodes, we ain't gonna export ourselves out of trouble. One interesting idea buried in today's excitement was the prospect of public service workers being offered collective wage reduction and hours reductions instead of job cuts. It's the wage bill that needs reducing, not the number in employment. If people can be persuaded to take a pay cut of, say, 10% then this has a double effect. Everyone still has 90% of their income, we are not all paying for 500,000 people to be on benefits. Interesting times ahead.

With regard uni places, fees and Bicksters attitude toward everyone and anyone getting a crack at Uni. I'm in a fairly unusual position of being middle aged and in full time employment, but to further my career I've just completed (and gained) a BSc. I think I can honestly say that I now have some letters that will impress people that don't have a clue what the course entailed. But did I learn anything new? No. Was the teaching up to speed with real world developments and current practises? Mostly, but hardly cutting edge. Was the course tailored to prepare the full time students for the real world in a design office. Nnnnnnno. Not. Even. Close. O.k. perhaps we teach people to think and not just to know how to work to today's standards and norms. Did the course encourage thinking, improvisation and innovation? Did it fook. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I'd personally now have a very different attitude towards anyone sending in a CV with a degree from there instead of a few years of sitting in a real office cracking on with the mundane bottom rung stuff. A very enlightening couple of years. I didn't even turn up to get attendance marks after year one, more important stuff to do than get a tick in a register which unbelievably contributed towards marks (5% for attendance!) on a degree course. I had no idea you could get marks towards a degree......for attendance. Other students (the fulltime ones) had absolutely no idea how to organise themselves. Did Uni show them how to organise and prioritise? No. Did Uni simply mark them down in a sink or swim attitude to non submission of work? No. Uni simply permanently moved deadlines and altered set tasks to ensure everyone could manage just fine. Which is great, because out in business world, those students will have loads of Clients and managers that will also move deadlines and ease tasks to make sure everything stays nice and comfy. I was always a great believer in University education and experience for everyone. Then I went to Uni. Perhaps fees, which i was always opposed to, can actually be a force for good. Weeding out people using it as an option other than going and getting a job they didn't really fancy and weeding out silly courses and making employers realise that if someone has done the job for 25 years and doesn't appear to be totally incompetent, perhaps the paper proof is a pointless waste of money. Oh, and I ain't naming names until the paperwork comes through!

Nick Clegg not attending Margaret Thatcher's birthday party in Downing Street today.

my understanding of the child benefit cut off was a desire for a crudely simple system. Yes, there were 'cleverer' ways of adopting a cut off with phasing and means testing etc but the ethos was to keep it simple stupid. To be fair, there is an arguement for a tax that tries not to cost money to impose. Then today we are told that uni tuition fees are going to be allowed to be raised by varying amounts, when you re pay is triggered by when you earn £21k, the interest rate you pay back at may depend on your circumstances, there will be more loans and grants available to the poorer students. Well fook me! What happened to keep it simple from last week?

I presume that was just a bit of trolling / flaming / unthinking generalisation that wasn't meant to be read seriously by anybody from my office that's been laid off recently?

In the building society this morning putting some money in my nippers' account, old lady at the counter taking ages, creating a rather large queue. Eventually she was handed a big brown envelope, shoved it in her bag, turned and announced to everyone in the queue 'right I'd better get straight off home because I've got £5,300 in here'. The was a collective groan from queue and staff alike.

Ever eaten sausages legov? always be careful how you answer a sausage eating question, it's probably best to be non-commital or say you've never had more than a couple of plain pork bangers whilst at Uni

Have to say, whilst there is a great arguement for the universality of child benefit, there's also a compelling arguement that someone earning £19k pa shouldn't be contributing towards the benefit handouts for the children of millionaires. It'll be interesting to see the biggest losers once the full package has been revealed, this is just one piece.